As we expected, with massive crowds gathering on both sides of the Egyptian coup outcome, it would be a night of violence and death. Sure enough, this is precisely what happened.
A first-person's narrative on the Egyptian events courtesy of Mohannad Sabry [2]:
Total crackdown by military on rep guards rally, spec ops are rounding the MB rally
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [3]
Gun battles at rep guards base and rabaa
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [4]
Spec ops are shooting, chasing and making arrests.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [5]
Gehad el-Haddad tells me dozens of injured and killed, all live ammo, ambulances are kept out.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [6]
Gehad Haddad tells me on phone he is taking photos of dozens of inj and killed at a bloody scene at rabaa pro Morsi rally.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [7]
Gehad Haddad tells me men are holding human shield around families and children.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [8]
Eastern Cairo is a military zone, hundreds of spec ops reinforcements.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [9]
Ambulances are running everywhere, don't know where to, cannot access what sounds like a war zone.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [10]
Two ambulances were turned back in front of me right now, military barricade is impenetrable.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [11]
Rabaa field hospital says 35 dead and more than 140 inj so far, dosnt include those taken to hospitals, all live ammo
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [12]
I am outta there, no access, military knows us at both entrances of the SSalem and Autostrad, stopped us once, too risky & fruitless.
— Mohannad Sabry (@mmsabry) July 8, 2013 [13]
And the official recap, via the WSJ [14]:
At least 42 people were killed and 332 were injured in a gunfight between soldiers and supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi that sharply raised the temperature in the brewing conflict between Egyptian secularists and Islamists.
In statements issued immediately after Monday's attack, the Muslim Brotherhood, which backed Mr. Morsi, said soldiers opened fire with live ammunition on pro-Morsi protesters as they performed the dawn prayer. The group called the killings a "massacre" and called on its followers to launch an "uprising" against "those who stole the revolution"—a thinly veiled reference to Egypt's military.
Military spokesmen told the Associated Press that gunmen opened fire on troops at the building, killing at least five supporters of Mr. Morsi and one officer. The different accounts couldn't be reconciled.
The death toll was reported by state television. At least one soldier was killed in the skirmish, according to Mena, Egypt's state news agency.
Jilted by a popular military coup that ousted Mr. Morsi from his office five days ago, the Brotherhood has been holding regular protests outside the Republican Guard Club, where Mr. Morsi is thought to be held.
...
Both sides of the conflict grappled to identify themselves as victims of Monday's shootings. The Brotherhood emailed links to YouTube videos that showed civilian victims being carried away from the scene of the shooting in the predawn darkness. Egyptian state television ran footage that showed civilians firing handguns at soldiers and police officers while claiming that the soldiers in front of the Republican Guard Club had acted in self-defense.
As Egyptians awoke on Monday, the early morning violence was already damaging the military-backed government's claims that last week's coup answered to the unified wishes of the Egyptian public. The spokesman for the Nour Party, which represents Salafi Islamist politicians and was the only Islamist group to back the military coup, announced on his Facebook FB -0.62% page Monday morning that it was pulling out of negotiations over a new government in protest over the killings.
"We will not be silent on the massacre at the Republican Guard today," said Nadar al Bakkar. "We wanted to stop the bloodshed, but now the blood is being shed in rivers. We withdraw from all talks with the new government."
As reports of the shootings flooded in on Monday morning, the violence looked set to escalate. The Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, called on the "great Egyptian people to rise up against those who want to steal their revolution."
So how long until the counter-counter-coup, or the counter-counter-revolution, depending on one's ideological bent...